Zoning And Light

Description

Zoning And Light

The rays of the sun bring light and heat to the earth, and both are necessary to man's existence. Dr. Haven Emerson, paraphrasing Michelet, has tersely epitomized human experience by saying, "You cannot raise babies any more without light and air than you can raise plants." Although admittedly mysterious in its action, sunlight is of positive biological benefit, and this is true even of diffused sunlight, or daylight. Its action is both physiological and psychological. It is a natural stimulant to the skin and the nervous system. It aids naturally in providing resistance to the body against diseases like tuberculosis. It has recently been learned that it plays an important part in the cure and prevention of rickets in children. It helps to cure tuberculosis of the bones. It provides illumination, the absence of which hampers activities of mind and body and induces eye strain with its attendant damages and discomforts. It provides Warmth in winter. Although science has not yet fathomed the influence of the sun's rays (and this influence may perhaps include the rays beyond those of the spectrum of light), it is a matter of accumulated experience that sunlit rooms are not only cheerful, but healthful, and that dark rooms are gloomy and unhealthful.

There are likewise many indirect benefits. Sunlight is a powerful disinfectant, rapidly destroying bacteria exposed to it, whether floating in the air or resting on pavements, floors or walls. Unequal heating of the air induces convection currents and beneficial air movements. Places not exposed to sunlight are more likely than others to contain stagnant air. Air movements have an important influence in regulating the temperature of the body. Stagnant air around the body tends to increase in humidity, thereby making a person feel warmer in summer because of lessened evaporation and cooler in winter because of greater conduction of heat by the moist air.

Sunlight tends to reduce the relative humidity of the air by increasing its temperature and its ability to hold water vapor. By removing moisture from dust particles in the air, it tends to lessen fogs. It also tends to dry pools of water which otherwise might become breeding spots for mosquitoes.

Sunlight markedly influences vegetation. Trees, shrubs, and grass are natural automatic regulators of heat conditions. During the summer trees produce desirable shade, yet, in winter, they do not obstruct the sunlight. In this respect the shade of trees differs from the shade of buildings. Vegetation also provides a natural chemical balance. Human beings, as well as all animals, inhale oxygen and exhale carbonic acid; whereas plants in sunlight take in carbonic acid and give out oxygen. Vegetation cannot thrive without sunlight and water. It is a matter of history that the increasing height of buildings and the increasing extent of impermeable area due to buildings and pavements drive out trees, shrubs, and grass. The effect of vegetation is local. Trees and grass concentrated in parks cannot take the place of vegetation on streets and individual house lots.

Daylight, which means indirect lighting from the sun by reflection from the sky, the clouds, and various surfaces, does all these things, but to a less degree than direct sunlight. Sunlight may even be too great, as everyone knows, especially during the summer and in the Tropics. Daylight has an important economic value. It is not only beneficial physiologically and pyschologically, but increases the productiveness of labor and reduces the necessity of artificial illumination. Artificial illumination involves expense and must be arranged with great care in order to be effective and not cause injury to the eyesight. Lighting with oil or gas tends to vitiate the air by increasing the carbonic acid and moisture, and even by increasing the poisonous carbonic oxide.

There are abundant reasons, therefore, for stating that adequate provision for allowing daylight to enter an inhabited building is essential to human growth, health, vitality, and comfort. Whoever, by building overmuch on his own land, prevents his neighbor from receiving a reasonable amount of light on his land is doing him an injury that properly comes within the scope of the police power.

Much can be done to make the best use of sunlight by the orientation of buildings and streets. Buildings facing the cardinal points are not as well lighted throughout the year as those facing the quarter-points. Western townships with their north, south, east, and west boundaries have tended to grow up into cities having streets in these directions. Many trivial matters often control street orientation, whereas the element of sunlight receives scant attention. The matter does not become one of real importance until high buildings are constructed, and, by that time, street lines have become fixed. Contact with civil-engineering students in recent years has convinced the writer that astronomy receives too little attention in the schools. Few students, on graduation, are able to trace the sun's path in the heavens at different seasons or to draw the shadow of an isolated house, not to mention the shadows of high buildings on each other, when located on a street of given latitude, width, and direction.